All through my youth…!… Mohan Rushi, Telugu Poet
Some people are such:
They enliven our lives,
Bring the rhythmic beat of our heart to a standstill;
Culture new dreams in us with their mock anger;
Pass on wisdom of books through their silence;
And bare our impoverishment of vocab to us, when we try to speak.
Does it really matter where they are? Who they belong to?
Or, flutter in the skies like a pennon of pleasure?
Just a look at their photo freezes us; and,
We fall head over heels listening to them over phone
And search for Nostradamus’ predictions of magical charms
That might seize us should we meet them face to face.
*
Only thereafter, life has turned interminable by degrees,
And unfathomably busy. A disquieting ache used to rattle every chance encounter.
And whenever I felt that I might not see you again
Life seemed to cease with tremors of unknown whelming fears.
.
Mohan Rushi
From “Square One” Anthology.
